Don Cuevas at My Mexican Kitchen submits his green chile, potato & cheese knish recipe for you approval.

Why is that about 90% of New York City street vendors — like this friendly fellow here — reply as such when asked for a knish? The reason is twofold. First, the knish has nosedived in quality over the last several decades, especially the type sold from carts. That’s brought demand for the knish way […]

“Knish” is a Yiddish word, Yiddish being a Germanic language created by Ashkenazi Jews who settled in and around the Rhine Valley about the year 900. It closely resembles two other words in current use today, the Russian knys which means “pastry” and the Polish knyz meaning “snack.” Put those two together, and that’s pretty […]

Take heed all you just-married guys out there: this is the kind of dedication you engender when you’re as good a husband as Joe is. The missus walked all the way down from 87th and Amsterdam to about 50th and Broadway, just to take a picture of a knish. You know, honey, I’d have preferred […]

As fortune would have it, Mrs. Pastry is in Manhattan today for a conference. This morning she went to my favorite Upper West Side eatery, Barney Greengrass, without me. I’ll find a way to forgive her, but she did send me a picture of what I might term the “tart-style” knish they make there. Frankly, […]

Jim Chevallier, who is fast becoming the research arm of Joe Pastry Global Enterprises, submits this fascinating clip from a 1916 edition of the New York Times. I don’t want to give too much away, save to say it’s a ripping tale of knishes, a socialist congressman, gratuitous advertising and an oompah band. It’s notable […]

A smattering of emails overnight (mostly from Manhattanites) expressing their dismay over what they see as Joe playing fast and loose with the knish. I don’t deny it, and in fact one of the email authors was quite correct when she noted that most of the time I stay pretty true to the original of […]

It’s like asking where bread comes from. Or more to the point: pie. The small pie — the “pocket pie” — just seems to be one of those good ideas that a lot of different people all came up with, more or less all at the same time. The Cornish had their pasties, the Spanish […]

Dough and filling. Beyond that, interpretations vary wildly. There are round knishes, square knishes, tall knishes, flat knishes, oblong, ball-shaped, tube-shaped, knishes that look like miniature tarts or cupcakes, even bottomless, roll-style knishes that resemble cinnamon buns. The one rule seems to be that regardless of the way it’s shaped, a knish has to be […]